Over the past three decades, global governance has become more crowded than would have been imaginable only a generation ago. Alongside established international organisations (IOs) such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), global governance now features a wide range of regional IOs, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), minilateral but expanding clubs like the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), and private transnational standard-setters such as the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Many of these actors possess both the will and the power to shape international rules. As a result, very few policy areas are governed by a single IO. Today, global governance is managed by complex webs of actors that overlap in both mandate and membership.
At the same time, the governance problems these actors confront have become increasingly intertwined. Trade disputes spill over into climate negotiations; the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a crisis that left no policy area untouched; and the regulation of cyberspace intersects with concerns around security, trade, health, and finance. In practice, this means that no single IO can solve intersecting global challenges on its own. Cooperation problems increasingly transcend traditional policy areas, and the actors seeking to address them must do the same.
Complexity is not in itself a problem for the quality of global governance – disordered complexity is.
Drawing on the ENSURED conceptual framework (Choi et al. 2024), this report examines how overlapping IOs and intersecting challenges influence the robustness, effectiveness, and democratic quality of international cooperation. It addresses this question by combining recent empirical insights from 15 ENSURED case studies with a systematic review of academic literature to identify long-term trends. The report concludes that governance complexity is neither inherently beneficial nor detrimental for international cooperation. Instead, outcomes largely depend on the architecture of governance complexes – specifically, whether overlapping actors operate in a structured or fragmented way – and on how political disagreements among powerful states unfold within these structures.
The report finds three patterns that stand out:
- Robustness: Governance is most robust when governance complexes operate within a hierarchical structure and when major member states agree on overarching goals and principles. Climate governance offers a clear example: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement function as central anchors.
- Effectiveness: Effective governance occurs when IOs coordinate their procedures and support each other’s decisions. The response to the global financial crisis provides a positive example: faced with the crisis, the G20, the Financial Stability Board, and the Basel Committee reacted swiftly due to their clearly defined roles.
- Democracy: Governance complexity can enhance democratic legitimacy through participation and accountability, but it does not automatically lead to more democratic outcomes.
Building on these insights, the report further highlights implications for political actors seeking to navigate and shape an increasingly dense global governance landscape.
Citation Recommendation: Schmidtke, Henning, and Stephanie C. Hofmann. 2026. “Governing in Complexity: Assessing the Quality of Global Governance Across 15 Case Studies.” ENSURED Research Report, no. 25 (January): 1-32. https://www.ensuredeurope.eu.
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